1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to removing or lifting or drawing away, by air suction technique, small quantities of particulate, liquid, or molten matter and particularly to apparatus improvements in hand held, vacuum cleaning devices. The present invention finds particularly useful application in the field of soldering, desoldering, and rewiring in electronic laboratories, maintenance shops, factories, or hobbyists' benches; and although, in the cause of clarity and brevity, much of the following discussion and description of examples of the invention are directed theretoward, it is expressly to be understood that the advantages of the invention are equally well manifest in other fields wherever and whenever substances are to be removed or cleaned from an object such, for further example, in medical or dental fields, as in removal of foreign objects or unwanted substances from portions of the body including the eye, ear, nose, throat, or open wound or the like.
2. Background of the Invention
In the electrical arts as mentioned, it is often desired to desolder an electrical connection such as, for example, a wire wrapped terminal, a wire to circuit board eyelet, or the like. The removal from the connection, of the molten solder without dropping or spattering it onto other portions of the equipment is generally essential. Blowing or shaking the molten metal away is therefor not an acceptable practice; and, in combination with its high mass density, the high surface tension associated with the solder makes its removal particularly difficult. Furthermore, the problem is aggravated by the requirement that the solder be removed quickly and without application of cooling means before the mechanical connection such as a wirewrapped terminal may be taken apart.
Various non-portable central vacuum systems and highly portable and efficient hand held vacuum stroke tools have advanced the state of the art and have solved certain aspects of the desoldering problems outlined; however, the former have heretofore suffered from disadvantages of cost, complexity, lack of versatility, and non-portability while the latter suffer from some disadvantages, to a lesser extent, of cost and complexity, and, in some applications, undesirable recoil due to the flyback action of the piston cocking shaft-knob assembly during the vacuum stroke, the recoil causing a deflection of the solder inlet tip into the location of the molten solder.
This recoil caused displacement is particularly intolerable in medical applications such as in removing foreign matter from a patient's eye.
Another disadvantage of central vacuum systems is the difficulty of maintaining the tip inlet nozzle clear of interferring foreign substance such as solidified solder.
It is, accordingly, an object of the present invention to provide improved vacuum operated, cleaning apparatus which is not subject to these and other disadvantages and limitations of the prior art.
It is another object to provide such apparatus which, while providing consistently a high amplitude of impulse air flow, has no flyback portion and no deflection of the tool during its vacuum operated cleansing action.
It is another object to provide such apparatus which is exceedingly low in cost, is miniature and simple, and is rugged, and reliable in its structure and performance.
It is another object to provide such apparatus which may readily be molded of low cost, recyclable plastic materials.
It is another object to provide such apparatus, the outer body of which may be clear plastic to permit continuous inspection of its condition and performance.
It is another object to provide such apparatus the nozzle tip of which is self-cleaning.
It is another object to provide such apparatus having readily removable and replaceable tip means particularly in medical uses for assuring the effective sterility of the implement.